a Shadow in the Midst of Light |Prologue Part 1|

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A white pup jumped into the air, and pounced on his catch. A leaf.

"Good job, Silver!" His leader cheered.

Silver smiled with pride. This "hunt" was his first time out of the clan base. "When are we going to kill live prey?" He asked.

"Leaves are live prey," his leader said and chuckled. "They move by the wind's song."

The wind's song. Silver heard this term before, but when, and where?

Silver just nodded in response. Not knowing what to respond with, he looked around the area. The tundra with a few, barren trees, made it hard to hunt, by what Silver assumed.

He heard scuffling; no, not his leader or a big predator, it was a small prey. His ears shot up; so did his leader's.

"Do you hear that?" Silver whispered to his leader.

"Yes," he said,"it's a mouse. What is it doing out so early?"
"Who cares? It's prey!"
"We should look at prey behavior more closely now. But you're right; its prey."
"Do you want me to catch it?"
"Please do."

"Ok." Silver pinpointed the mouse's location, and lowered down to pounce. It was about two tail lengths in front of him, and he unsheathed his claws.

He made sure it stopped moving, then sprang forward to kill it. The mouse tried to run, but it was too late. Silver's claws sank into the rodent's fur, and it let out an ear piercing shriek. For a second it screamed, then it fell limp. Silver picked it up in his jaws, and trotted back to his leader.

"Well done!" His leader said, "your first catch!"

"You mean, real catch!" Silver said between his prey.

"Your parents are going to be so proud!"

Silver and his leader walked back to camp, where two gray wolves guarded the entrance.

"Hello, Blanc." One of them said, and bowed.

"Hi," Blanc said. Both wolves backed up while bowing to let Blanc and Silver through the stick-y bush entrance.

The prey pile was about half full as it should be. Some clanmates were eating their fill, while others already ate. The omega was sadly watching the others eat, as he had to eat last, based on rank.

Blanc walked up to the omega, and he bowed really low.

"Rise," Blanc said, and the omega did so. "You may eat now, Coal."

"Thank you, thank you, sir." The dark gray wolf said, and walked over to the prey pile and picked a mouse.

"Come," Blanc said to Silver. He forgot that he was still holding his prey. "Let's show your parents what you found."

They walked to the nursery where Silver's two siblings were, along with his parents. He was immediately bombarded with bodies of fur and questions.

"How was it?" The first question was thrown out.
"What did you get?"
"What did you do?"
"Ooh I see you got your first prey from the prey pile!"

"Stop," Silver said, overwhelmed, but it did nothing.

"Ok guys, enough," another wolf said. "I'm trying to sleep."

"Sorry," Silver's first sibling said.
"Oops," said the other.

"Actually, that prey he got wasn't from the prey pile, he caught it with his own claws. I watched it." Blanc walked into the nursery den.

"Ooh it's da leadur!" The first sibling with bad wolf tongue said.
"No, it's the leader, not whatever you said," the second sibling with perfectionism said. They tackled each other, and Blanc had to rip them away from each other with a paw.

"Cmon guys," Silver's mother said. "Let's go outside to talk."

All of them padded out of the den, and stretched with the new space. "So, how was your hunt?" She said.

"It was great! I caught my first mouse!" Silver beamed.

"Can I try it?" The first sibling said.
"Yeah, I want a bite!" Said the second one.

"Let him eat his own catch. He earned it," his mother said gently.

"No fair!" The first one said.
"Yeah! And I also thought you were supposed to share with your clanmates!" The second one also said.

Silver's mother sighed. "They're always like this," she said, half to herself and the other half to Blanc.

"Pups are pups." He replied blankly. "I had to deal with this too when I was one myself. Claw and Snow were my siblings."

"Claw and Snow?" Silver asked out of a little confusion.
"Yep. The best hunters we've had here were my siblings."

"That's cool," the second sibling said. "I want to be just like them when I grow up!"
"I want to be the leader when I'm bigger!" The first sibling said, stamping his paws into the snow from excitement.

"I'm sure both of you will be great wolves when you're big and strong," Blanc said. "Well, River, if you want to be like them, would you like to go on your first hunt with me and your siblings? If that's okay with your parents, of course." He added, looking at Winter and Summer.

They both nodded, with a small bow. "Of course." Summer said.
"Be safe!" Winter added.

"Are you guys done talking yet? I'm still trying to sleep in here," a voice called out from the nursery den.

"Yeah, almost, Sunstreak," Blanc replied.
"Good."

Blanc said in a lower voice, "is she always like this in there?"
"Yeah, you'll get used to it, though," Winter replied in a whisper.
"I remember how my mother was when she was in the nursery with us. Exactly the same as Sunstreak."

"Really?" Silver unknowingly cut in, twisting his tiny neck to look at his leader. "Which nest did you sleep in?"

"The far left corner one."

"Ooh! Our nest is right next to it!" River exclaimed, jumping in the air right next to Silver.

Blizzard, the pup who wanted to be the leader when he grew up, let out a small growl. "I'm sure he knows that, stupid."

"I'm not stoopid. You're stoopid!" River jumped on top of her older brother and pawed at his belly with her claws sheathed. Blizzard pretended to be shocked, with his mouth wide open, and he rolled his eyes. "Says the youngest pup in the litter."

She play gasped. "Noooo! Not thaaaat insult! You meaner!" She said with very obvious sarcasm. She lightly swatted his face with her paw, also rolling her eyes.

Blanc stood there, bewildered. "Should I do something?" He asked with a tilt to his head.

"They'll be done in a few minutes," Summer said, and sighed. "I swear, they do this almost every night."

Blizzard, being the oldest pup in the litter, easily pushed River off of him when he rolled over into his stomach. He stood up, and shook his whole body from head to tail. A few long-dead leaves fell out of his fur, and snow was flicked everywhere, including the wolves around him.

"Ack!" River complained. "Now I look like I was the one on the ground." She licked her gray fur down to melt any snow that was on it.

"Are we going to hunt or what?" Silver grumbled, feeling slightly discomforted by River grooming herself. He felt like it was her tongue on his fur, like there were ants crawling up his spine.

Like someone was watching him.

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Word count: 1215 words

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Hope you enjoyed that first part :3

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